Logh
Light From Sovereign States/Into the Night 7”
It’s a Trap!
Here’s another 7” gem from It’s a Trap! Records, one of the most reliable importers of excellent Scandinavian music right now. Both of this single’s tracks are culled from a live performance by Logh in Lund, Sweden in December, 2005. Heavy winter and encroaching darkness have their left their impressions deeply on the band’s performance. The A-side, “Light From Sovereign States,” is epically sparse. Using only a piano playing a simple repetitious melody with very little variation – a extra note or slight key change modifies the pattern occasionally – and an ominously quiet looped guitar drone in the background, the glacial pace and tasteful experimentation make it easy to confuse this Swedish Logh, with our own Minnesotan Low.
This similarity doesn’t continue on to the B-side, however, where the band amps up significantly, unleashes the guitar and brings in a swelling string section to back the gorgeous vocals of guest singer Britta Persson on “Into the Night.” If this song is familiar to you it’s probably thanks to Julee Cruise’s version on the wonderfully surreal Twin Peaks television series. Co-written by series creator David Lynch and his frequent soundtrack collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, this track is more melodramatic in its sadness than the previous side’s personal melancholy. Persson’s vocals rise and fall over a dusky bed of orchestration reminiscent of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds or The Black Heart Procession. With winter still making some taunting reminders we’re not out of the bleak weather yet, this 7” is a quick, preparatory fix for those chilly lapses in spring’s path toward summer.
It’s a Trap!: http://www.itsatrap.com
